Johann Georg Hohman was a prominent figure in both popular printing and folk magic of the Pennsylvania Dutch community. He immigrated to Reading from Hamburg in 1802 and made a long career of publishing books, ballads, and broadsides. As publisher of some of the first Germanic broadsides and ballads in America, Hohman attempted to improve the translated songs and remedies for ease of singing and recitation. He disappeared after producing his last work in 1846.
Homhans mysterious European origin, unrecorded death, and Roman Catholic faith—rare in a Protestant society—all add to the intrigue of reading his works. Other books include the Gospel of Nicodemus, an edition of New Testament apocryphal works, and the last before his retreat, The Pious Mans Devotion to God, a reworking of the traditional “The Childhood of Jesus.”